Ransomware Attacks of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Novel Strains, Victims, and Threat Actors

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many organizational vulnerabilities to cyber threats, with ransomware being at the top of the list. These can be attributed mainly to consolidated accessibility as organizational vision to enable remote connectivity to their digital resources for maintaining uninterrupted and safe business operations. During the period 2020–2022, there was a noted and significant disparity between the demand for IT support services to sustain remote IT operations and the level of security controls contingent for maintaining uninterrupted and secure services over various digital platforms. According to many studies, the number of ransomware attacks increased by 150–200% through the course of the pandemic, which caused disruptions across a wide range of industries. We present a holistic analysis of popular ransomware attacks that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic (mainly during 2020–2022) and identify popular and novel ransomware strains that have impacted businesses.